


And Darkness Fell

by Vimtuous (HappyEight)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 12:23:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7844806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyEight/pseuds/Vimtuous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something was very, very wrong, Hermione realized, mind racing trying to figure out what was going on in front of her. Was Harry Imperioused? Or maybe some other Dark Curse that she’d never heard of had muddled his mind.</p><p>“Thank you my dear friend,” Harry said to the Dark Lord, and he really did sound like he meant it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Darkness Fell

They were all standing, tense and ready as Voldemort and Harry lashed curse after curse at each other. Voldemort had thrown up a barrier, keeping everyone, Death Eather, Order Members and Students alike, out. It also kept Harry very much trapped  _ in  _ and fighting for his life.

At this point it was impossible to tell who was doing better. Harry was bleeding badly, his right leg looked like raw meat from where a severing spell had glanced off of him before he could completely block it. Hermione wasn’t even sure how he was still standing up.

Voldemort wasn’t doing much better though. Harry had hit the Dark Lord’s wand arm with something that left it hanging uselessly at his side. He’d swapped his wand to his other hand and though he wasn’t having a problem flinging curse after curse at Harry, his accuracy had diminished significantly.

The two wizards cast at the same time, Voldemort flinging another curse and Harry trying to throw up a strong shield spell around himself.The shield kept Voldemort's curse from hitting him directly, but the force of the dark magic rebounding off his charm was enough to send him flying backwards to the ground, landing hard on his back. 

Voldemort let out a victorious shout, half crazed with victory, before he realized that his curse hadn’t actually hit the other wizard, and was now rebounding back towards him. His shout of joy turned into a bellow of rage, and he slashed his wand wildly in front of him.

The Dark Lord didn’t attempt to deflect the course of the curse, and Hermione couldn’t help but imagine, he was more than a little insane with the power from the Elder Wand. Instead, he shouted a spell Hermione had never heard. The sound of the words sent a shiver down her back, in a way that let her know whatever the Dark Lord had just cast was dark magic indeed. Voldemort's spell hit his previous rebounded spell and the magic collided.

The entire barrier filled with a thick black smoke that completely enveloped both wizards. An awful screeching sound filled the air, louder and louder until Hermione clapped her hands to her ears to try and block out the sound. She didn’t know what was making it, if it was the spells going wrong or if was the two wizards inside the magical shield making the horrendous noise. It was making her physically ill. The sound cut off sharply and the sudden silence left Hermione’s head ringing. The smoke cleared from inside the barrier and once again they could see the two wizards trapped inside.

Then the screaming began again in earnest, louder than she had thought possible. Turning her stomach and making her head feel like it was going to burst. 

Hermione glanced wildly around her but it wasn’t the Death Eaters or the Order Members screaming. This time it was Harry, sprawled on his back, spine arching in a way that didn’t even seem possible. His mouth was open and the noise coming out of it didn’t even sound human. 

Not just Harry though. Voldemort was screaming, collapsed into a heap, clawing at his head like he was trying to get something out. His fingers were making welts in the skin where he scratched. After far too long, both of the wizards screaming died down until there was only silence.

The magical barrier dropped then. 

When Voldemort started pushing himself up off the ground Hermione’s hand was at her mouth, her heart racing wildly, ever fiber of her willing Harry to get up off the ground. Voldemort walked over to Harry, calm and quiet.

A shudder went through Harry’s body, and his eyes snapped open. A smile spread over Voldemort's face. And every spectator watched in complete confusion as the Dark Lord lent a hand to the other Wizard and helped pull him to his feet. 

Something was very, very wrong, Hermione realized, mind racing trying to figure out what was going on in front of her. Was Harry Imperioused? Or maybe some other Dark Curse that she’d never heard of had muddled his mind.

“Thank you my dear friend,” Harry said to the Dark Lord, and he really did sound like he meant it. 

“It has been far too long since we spoke like this.” Voldemort said.

Hermione’s blood ran cold.

“Far too long indeed,” Harry said with a nod and a smile. 

“We need to get out of here,” She said turning to Ron.

The redhead was looking at Harry with his mouth open in complete confusion.

“Ron!” Hermione said forcefully grabbing him by the arm.

Ron gaze snapped to her.

“That’s not Harry,” He said in a hoarse whisper, sounding utterly wrecked.

“We need to get everyone out of here!” Hermione said again more forcefully, loud enough for others standing around them to hear. A mummer of unease was going through their ranks. 

On the other side of the battlefield, the Death Eaters were shifting where they stood,clearly uncomfortable with the scene that was folding out in front of them. Likely, they had expected this to play out with bloodshed, not the peculiar camaraderie that was being displayed in front of them. 

“My dear,  _ Tom _ ,” Harry said, as if the name amused him greatly. “We have quite an audience here waiting for this battle to finish.”

“Yes  _ Harry _ , I believe we do,” Voldemort said shifting and turning his gaze around at the people standing about the pair. “And what do we want to do with such a captive audience?”

“I say,” Harry said turning around to look at the Order members, students and teachers standing behind him, “That we give them a choice. Let them choose whether they would like to join us, or if they would prefer death.”

“And the  _ Death Eaters _ ,” Voldemort said, “Such a  _ lovely  _ name I’ve come up with. What of them?”

“Well they are your followers, Tom,” Harry said, “I believe they’re yours to do with what you will.”

“And what do you say?” Voldemort shouted, loud enough to make the Death Eaters flinch. “Are you still behind me, now that we are the strongest force the world has ever seen?”

They didn’t seem to know what was going on any more than anyone else did, but clearly taking a stand against both the Dark Lord  _ and  _ Harry Potter didn’t rank high on their list of things to do. There was a moment of stillness from the Death Eaters, before they began dropping one by one, onto their nears, with murmurs of allegiance to the Dark Lord. Hermione wondered how far gone they all must be from reason to accept what was going without a protest.

Except one.

“My Lord,” Bellatrix gasped, shuffling in confusion, towards Voldemort. “I do not understand. Aren’t we going to kill Potter? Isn’t that what we’ve been trying to do all along. Let me do it for you my Lord, if you don’t wish to. For you. Let me do it for you! Avada-”

Voldemort flicked his wand at Bellatrix, a flash of green and the woman crumpled. 

“Does anyone else wish to question my judgement.” He asked. Hermione felt like screaming.

The rest of the Death Eaters stayed completely silent. 

“And what of you lot?” Harry asked staring around at the group of people that had come to support him in his fight against the Dark Lord. “I’m not judging if you’re muggle born or half blood. All I ask is that you stand beside me like you have been.”

He looked like Harry, and he sounded like Harry. But every fiber in Hermione screamed that he most certainly was not the Harry Potter that she had been friends with for the last eight years. She didn’t know who this was, or if the real Harry even existed somewhere in the person standing in front of her. She fiercely hoped that he was in there somewhere.

That was when Ron decided he needed to open his mouth and start demanding answers.

“Who are you? What have you done with Harry?” The redhead shouted, clenching his wand in his hand. 

“You know who I am, Ron,” Harry said, still sounding like Harry and looking like Harry and moving just like Harry, but at the same time somehow  _ not _ . “We’ve been best mates for years. I’ve had Christmas at the Burrow with your family.”

“But you’re joining forces with  _ him _ !” Ron spat the words out, unable to hide any of his disdain or anger. “He’s killed hundreds, maybe thousands of peopple. What have we been fighting for all this time. What’s happened to you?

“Ron-”

“Something’s wrong with you!’ Ron said taking a step forward, “C’mon Harry, you need to snap out of this, I know you! and this isn’t you! Something must have possessed you. Whatever happened with Voldemort’s spell, we can fix it! Don’t give into the Dark!”

“This is me Ron,” Harry said, sounding honestly sad. He sounded like the same frustrated and sad Harry that had to prove time and time again to people that he wasn’t Dark and wasn’t trying to help Voldemort or the Death Eaters. “What do I need to do to convince you?”

Hermione watched as Ron’s face fell because he did look like Harry. He sounded like Harry, and he acted like Harry, but everyone standing there knew that this wasn’t the same Harry Potter that had stood on the battlefield and put his life on the line to fight Voldemort. Something had happened and whoever this was it was not their best friend.

It killed Hermione, listening to their best friend ask them to throw aside everything they had been fighting for since first year and to join forces with the person that had caused so much grief and pain to every single one of them. Had taken away a family member or a friend. Had made sure that none of them had a normal safe childhood. If Harry was somewhere inside himself still, listening to the words coming out of his mouth, he must have been in anguish.

“You have a choice, Ron,” Harry said gently, and sincerely. LIke he always did when he was letting them know how he felt, but letting them make up their own minds, even when he knew he was right.

“I-,” Ron faltered, “I can’t. Not after everything we’ve been through. Not after everything that we’ve fought for.”

“That hurts Ron,” Harry said, and he really did look deeply troubled by Ron’s comment. “There’s nothing I can do to convince you otherwise?”

Ron swallowed hard and shook his head.

“Then I’m sorry,” Harry said and with a flick of his wand. Ron crumpled into a heap besides Hermione. She screamed and dropped down next to him, but his eyes were vacant. 

He was dead.

“You’re a monster!” Hermione cried looking at the face of the person who used to be one of her best friends. “How could you do that? He was suppose to be your friend.”

“I gave him a choice,” Harry said simply. And it turned her stomach how there was nothing cruel in his words. No sense of superiority. He felt that he was in the right completely. “And I’m going to give each and everyone of you a choice. You’re a smart girl Hermione, I’m sure you’ll make the right decision.”

“He was your friend,” Hermione repeated, angry tear spilling into the corners of her eyes. 

“And you still can be,” Harry said.

Hermione wasn’t usually the sort of person to charge into battle without a plan. But her heart hurt and she had just watch one of her best friends kill the other one.

“Run!” She shouted hoping the witches and wizards standing around her would listen to her. At the same time she flung a two curses, one after the other, at Harry and at Voldemort

She actually caught Harry off guard. Maybe he had expected her to stand idly by while he struck her down like he had Ron, or maybe he had really expected her to stand by him in the name of friendship.

Either way, he wasn’t entirely prepared for the the spell that hit him in his already mangled leg. He crumpled with a groan, losing his wand as he automatically grabbed at the injured limb. 

“You stupid girl,” Voldemort snarled, knocking her spell aside ease. She didn’t wait for him to recover, instead casting jinx after curse at him, keeping one eye on Harry who was scrambling for his wand which had rolled some distance away. 

Hermione may not have had Harry’s raw ability and power to just cast any spell that he wanted, but she was a far more skilled witch than he was a wizard. Voldemort actually shifted backwards, keeping himself facing her and totally on guard against her raw fury. Behind her there was cracks of what she hoped were people apparating away from the courtyard but she dared not look. 

When she finally got hit, it wasn’t because she let her guard down. She saw Harry finally reach his wand, and the Death Eaters shifting around them closing her exists off. But there wasn’t anything that she could do, except keep fighting and keep throwing every spell she could muster. The stunner caught her in the back before she could throw up a shield charm.

Her body went limp and she fell to the ground hard.

“I thought you were smarter than that Hermione,” Harry said, pain clear in his voice. Hermione couldn’t tell if it was because of his mangled leg or her actions. 

She closed her eyes and tried to exhale, sure that this was the end for her. There was no way that she was going to make it away this time. Harry wasn’t going to swoop in and save her, he was the one who had her trapped, and Ron...was gone. Hopefully the Order Members had gotten as many of the students to safety as the could.  And if nothing else, she could take a small part of relief in knowing that her parents were safe, far away from here, and not even Harry knew where they were, and they had no memory of her so they’d never even know she was missing or dead.

“I would have given you a quick death,” Harry said, sounding mournful. “I wouldn't have made you suffer. You didn’t need to suffer.”

Hermione tried to tune his words out, to go as far away from this courtyard as her mind would let her. 

The first spell that hit her all of her nerves on fire. Not Cruciatus, but something like it. Something that made everything touching her feel like thousand needles all piercing her skin at the same times. Her cloths against her skin, her wand in her hand, the cobblestone of the courtyard against her face. All of it was pain. 

The pain stopped as did the stunning curse, and Hermione crawled to her hands and knees, unable to stop from retching in pain. 

“Disgusting,” Voldemort said and a bout of ugly laughter came from the Death Eaters. 

“Stupid Mudblood,” sneered one of them, Hermione couldn't tell which, as she focused on breathing and not throwing up again. 

“Her blood has nothing to do with this,” Harry said flatly, and the next curse that he cast didn’t hit her, but rather sent the Death Eater into a heap with a soft groan. “All Magical blood is precious. Pure, half or muggle-born. Hermione has chose her fate on action alone.”

**Author's Note:**

> This might bump up to Explicit later. I haven't decided.


End file.
